Boston, Mass. (February 7, 2012) – The Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety (CBPPS) today announced the official launch date for the highly-anticipated Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) exam. This credentialing process is designed to establish patient safety competency standards and elevate the professional stature of health care professionals who meet knowledge requirements in safety science, human factors engineering, and the practice of safe care.

In recognition of the advancement of patient safety as an acknowledged and critical discipline across the care continuum, testing for the CPPS credential will be made available as Patient Safety Awareness Week kicks off globally on March 5, 2012.

Certification requires a combination of education and experience, as well as successful completion of the evidence-based certification exam, which tests candidates on six core patient safety domains: Culture, Leadership, Risk Identification and Analysis, Data Management System Design, Mitigating Risk through Systems Thinking and Design and Human Factors Analysis, and External Influences on Patient Safety.

“It is widely recognized that, in order to make our health care system safer and more effective, improve the patient experience, and lower the cost of care, we need to work differently than we have in the past and incorporate all that we have learned from safety science and human factors engineering into our process design and improvement work,” said Diane Pinakiewicz, president of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). “The Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety has responded to this critical need by creating the benchmarking CPPS patient safety credential, formally validating skills and competencies, and encouraging health care professionals from all disciplines to become the standard bearers for patient safety excellence, advancing the shared body of knowledge and practice that will make the health care system safer for all.”

CBPPS has also developed an optional 50-question practice exam, which is parallel in content and difficulty to the actual Certified Professional in Patient Safety exam and is a diagnostic tool to assess candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.

About the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety

The Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety (CBPPS) was established by, but is a separate organizational entity from, the National Patient Safety Foundation, and was created to advance, standardize, and promote patient safety knowledge competencies for health care professionals. To this end, successful completion of the rigorously-designed Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS) exam attests to candidates’ knowledge of essential patient safety competencies, upon which time the board confers the CPPS credential. Those attaining the CPPS designation represent a group of committed professionals from across health care who are determined to advance the patient safety field and make the health care system safer for all. To learn more, go to www.cbpps.org.